Phillips: The NFL seems to be sending a message to Panthers' Eric Reid, and anyone else who might defy it

It’s getting pretty hard to believe that the NFL doesn’t have it out for Eric Reid.

Colin Kaepernick’s brother in arms is once again in the news, and the latest incident feels like the powers that be are trying their hardest to let us know that they’d rather not have No. 25 playing football in the NFL.

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On Thursday night, Reid was ejected from the Panthers’ 52-21 loss to the Steelers for a hit he put on Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

The ejection wasn’t the issue for me, especially given the way that quarterbacks are protected in today’s NFL.

However, what Reid revealed to us after the game was. According to Reid, the league drug tested him again, making it the fifth time he’s been tested since becoming a Panther.

"This is like the fifth time since I've been here ... They're not going to catch me on anything,” he said.

If this is true, that’s five drug tests in six weeks.

“Re: PED testing: Each week during the season, 10 players per club will be tested. By means of a computer program, the policy’s jointly appointed Independent administrator randomly selects before the game players to be tested. Page 5 of NFL-NFLPA policy,” tweeted Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s vice president of communications, on Friday.

Hey Brian, I’m not buying it. And I’m not the only one.

Panthers strong safety Eric Reid stands on the sideline prior to an NFL football game against the Eagles. (Matt Rourke / AP)

“Because of the social stance that he has taken, (Reid) is an enemy of the league and so you always have to wonder if there’s an element of that,” said Israel Gutierrez on Friday’s episode of ESPN’s “Highly Questionable.”

“This is a dude (Reid) that brought a grievance against them (NFL) for collusion,” said Bomani Jones on Friday’s episode of ESPN’s High Noon. “He was a guy that didn’t have a job for an extended period of time. And the thing about this is, the call (to eject him) was not made on the field. He was not ejected on the field. The call was made from New York (league offices). You know another call that was made from New York? This one.”

This one was a controversial interception that was overturned that Reid made when the Panthers defeated the Eagles last month. In the highlight, you can see that Reid clearly has control of the ball he when he goes to the ground. However, the play was overturned by league officials in New York after it had been ruled an interception on the field.

Back then, Reid was still out of work and went in to meet with the Bengals. Cincinnati chose not to sign him because there was a chance he would continue kneeling during the national anthem in peaceful protest of racism and police brutality.

It was then made clear that the Bengals would rather have criminals on their roster than upstanding citizens, considering 32 Bengals players were arrested between 2000-2011, and a USA Today Sports database shows that the Bengals have 44 player arrests in the last 17 years. That's more than two players a season, and some of those arrests included domestic abuse and violence toward women. They even draft running back Joe Mixon in 2017 despite video evidence of him punching a woman in the face, fracturing it, while a student at Oklahoma back in 2014

“Everybody’s always got an answer and explanation,” Jones explained last Friday. “The problem is that this league’s credibility is so low that it’s hard to look at stuff like that and not be like, ‘Alright, is this what we’re saying?’”

From the outside looking in, it seems as if Reid is in an isolated place right now.

He’s playing, but Kaepernick is not.

Reid is also one of the few players in all of sports that’s still kneeling. Because it’s not like the issues we have with racism and police brutality have magically disappeared.

When Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins became the leader of the Players Coalition and took the $89 million that the league supposedly gave to them for social justice organizations, he picked a side.

Reid and Kaepernick are on the other side, as they broke away from the group. Reid even confronted Jenkins on the field before that Eagles game and later called him a sellout.

It’s as if the NFL is trying to use a tactic from the past when slave owners would deliberately create hostility between house slaves and the ones that worked in the fields.

By treating one group better, it created distrust and dysfunction between a race of people that should have been working together, not against one another.

Which is why it feels like that’s what the league is doing by trying to make an example out of Reid for opposing the system, and for calling out Jenkins.

But regardless of what the NFL may or may not be doing, somebody, whether it be players around the league or the NFLPA, is going to eventually have to step up and stand in support with Reid.

Because as Kaepernick continues to be blackballed by the league, the target is being placed solely on Reid’s back.